Dermatologic product supplier SkinMedica, Inc. has initiated a patent and trade secret action against Histogen, Inc., Histogen Aesthetics, LLC and Dr. Gail Naughton, founder, president and chief executive officer of Histogen and Histogen Aesthetics.

According to SkinMedica, Dr. Naughton was a co-founder of Advanced Tissue Sciences or ATS. The company acquired several assets from ATS, including intellectual property encompassing its NouriCel technology. The complaint seeks damages and an injunction against the defendants for the development and manufacture of aesthetic and therapeutic products using SkinMedica’s patented conditioned cell culture media technology.

The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, seeks relief against the defendants for infringing SkinMedica’s U.S. Patents No. 6,372,494 and/or 7,118,746. The ‘494 and ‘746 patents, which were filed in 1999 and 2000, respectively, relate to methods and uses of SkinMedica’s proprietary conditioned cell media technology. The complaint also seeks relief for the misappropriation of SkinMedica trade secrets and confidential information by Histogen, Inc., Histogen Aesthetics, LLC and Dr. Naughton.